Back & Forth featuring R Kelly

Back & Forth is probably the first Aaliyah tune that we fell in love with, its a definite party tune that always gets us in the mood for the weekend. It was written by R Kelly (who Aaliyah was rumoured to be married to at the time) and the pied piper even raps a few bars between shooting hoops in the video.

Hot Like Fire

Hot Like Fire is one of those tunes that just grabs you,  Aaliyahs’s vocals are so silky smooth and with Timbo on the buttons and Missy on lyrics these three were like the RnB dream team. This tune often features in our sets and was tune we chose to define our warm up sets in our Taste of HDD Mix

As fans of both Aaliyah and Slick Rick this one had to be included in our top 5  it’s the duo’s take on the Marvin Gaye classic and was on Aaliyah’s One In a Million album. We love how Slick Rick references another Aaliyah cover (this time the Isley Brothers’ At Your Best)  in his verse ‘love that song where you say that line about, you’re a positive motivating force within my life’

Back in One Piece featuring DMX

Aaliyah was a little bit of a tomboy, always with the guys, she understood them but also had a softer side, and DMX was the original Ruff Ryder. This tune plays to their personalities perfectly with Aaliyah understanding that her man needs to be in the streets but worrying at the same time, and DMX defending himself with his ride or die attitude while she pleads with him to be careful and make it back in one piece.  Back in One Piece featured on the soundtrack of Romeo Must Die, which stars both Aaliyah and DMX, the chemistry between the pair in this tune is pretty amazing (we even included it in our Fluffy Warm Up Mix ).

More Than A Woman

More Than a Woman was the third single from  Aaliyah’s self titled and last studio album, it was difficult to pick our favourite tune from this album as there were so many hits on there – we could have done a top 5 from that album alone! The hit was produced by Timbaland and written by Static Major (who also wrote Are You That Somebody, Try Again, We Need a Resolution and Rock The Boat) and its Timbo’s clever sampling combined with Aaliyah’s vocal range that makes this one a winner.  Look out for cameos from Mark Ronson and Rashida Jones  in the video.

The third HDD refix combines Polish producer Phantom’s ethereal tune Gothic with Aaliyah’s Are You That Somebody vocal to bring you Gothic Aaliyah
Make sure you support the original artists:
Hear more from Phantom here and more from Aaliyah here

As you all know we like to dance, and we are suckers for an instructional dance video at HDD HQ. In this video Tribal Magz (the man who brought us the Tribal Man Skank) and friends show us how to do the Tribal Azonto, which is a series of moves –  the haters move back, the wah di mi sika, the chop money, the be the tribal man, i dunno man….all i do is azonto man and many more – which seem to be inspired by some of the biggest tunes in Afro Beats right now  -  Fuse ODG’s Azonto, 5five’s Move Back, and P Square’s Chop My Money.

The Tribal Azonto track is a blend of DJ Cndo’s Termniator (which featured in our World Carnival mix) and 5five’s Move Back with Tribal Magz adding his own flavour to the mix. Props to Afrobeats in da city for putting us on to this one.

Bristol we are coming for you!!! On May 26th Kazabon and Hootie Who will be joining Dub Boy, ATKI2 and Brother Wetlands for Ruffnek Diskotek’s monthly Karnival at Cosies. It will be our first time in Bristol and we are hyped! Expect a little bit of this and a lot of this on the night. It’s KARNIVAL TIME!

More info on the Facebook event page

Do you remember when you had to wait for MTV’s The Lick or Yo MTV Raps to see the best new videos? We do! Kazabon even had a VHS of the her favourite videos, from a time when Hype Williams was behind nearly every great video and when artists tried to out-do themselves and their peers with the hottest new video. We have decided to dig into the HDD video vault to bring you some of our favourites.

Today’s selection from the HDD Video Vault is Brian McKnight’s You Should be Mine. Before Brian McKnight became a viral sensation by asking us if we were ready to learn he was was busy being nominated for Grammys, playing eight instruments, and making tunes like this one featuring Mase. This tune was released in 1997 and you can definitely tell its a 90s video by Brian’s leather jacket and shades, the hip hop dancers in crop tops, and the video girls are actually fully clothed! We especially love Mase’s two step and the shots of Brian trying to get down with the dancers.